


Ain't Easy Bein' Green

by SailorSol



Series: Unfinished Tales [3]
Category: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Power Rangers, Power Rangers Dino Thunder
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Gen, Leadership, Role Reversal, unfinished fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-05
Updated: 2015-02-05
Packaged: 2018-03-10 15:30:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3295529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SailorSol/pseuds/SailorSol
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tommy gets turned into a teenager. The other Dino Rangers don't quite know what to do with this.</p><p>[Unfinished and abandoned.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ain't Easy Bein' Green

**Author's Note:**

> Part of my ongoing cleaning-out of old fics that are doomed to be unfinished.

Tommy opened his eyes to find four unfamiliar faces staring down at him. He thought they looked concerned—or had, until their expressions changed to guarded relief. They were maybe a year or two older than Tommy, though he couldn’t be sure.

“Good, you’re awake,” the only girl said, holding a hand out. She was wearing a short sleeved yellow shirt over a longer sleeved black mesh shirt, nothing at all like Trini or Kim might wear. That was when Tommy realized he was flat on his back on the ground. “What do you remember?”

“Hey, maybe he doesn’t remember about that—” the kid wearing blue started to say, before the tallest of the three—in red, Tommy couldn’t help but notice—shoved him.

“Can it, Ethan,” the guy in red said. Now that Tommy was on his feet, he took a better look at the group. The last kid in white hadn’t said anything yet, but was giving Tommy a wary and assessing look.

“Who are you?” Tommy asked. He took a better look around him, his stomach sinking. He wished more than ever that he still had his morpher, but he’d handed his coin over to Jason to stop Rita from getting the powers. And it wasn’t like he’d be able to morph in front of these kids anyway. Even if they were suspiciously color-coded. “And where am I?”

All eyes focused on the kid in red. “Er,” he said. “You don’t remember us?”

“Obviously not,” the girl snapped, rolling her eyes. She held out a hand, this time in greeting. “I’m Kira. The Neanderthal is Conner, that’s Ethan, and Trent,” she said, pointing to each boy in turn.

“Hey,” Conner protested, but the one in white—Trent—was asking Tommy a question.

“Do you know who you are?” Trent asked.

“Tommy,” he replied. “This isn’t Angel Grove,” he said, looking around again. The skyline of the city was all wrong, and everything looked _off_ , a little too sleek. He wasn’t even sure he was on Earth any more. Maybe this was another one of Rita’s tricks. He tried not to show he was assessing them as threats—only Conner looked like he could take Tommy, but Tommy knew looks could be deceiving, and the four teenagers didn’t exactly look relaxed themselves.

“Reefside,” Kira supplied. “Maybe we should move this conversation to…”

“Hayley’s,” Conner said, decisively. “We can take… uh….”

“Yeah,” Ethan said, sounding somewhere between wary and excited. “I’m sure he won’t mind. Not like we have to worry about a lecture from him for a while, anyway.”

Kira snorted and rolled her eyes again. “Boys,” she muttered, but she didn’t argue with Conner’s plan.

“Who’s Hayley and why are we going to her place?” Tommy asked. There was something about these kids that made him want to trust them, but the memory of his time as Rita’s slave was still fresh. And he really didn’t like being here, alone, when the others had no idea that he might even be missing. It was stupid of him to think that Rita would just leave him alone just because he didn’t have his powers anymore. The least he could have done was kept his communicator, but when he checked his wrist, there was an unfamiliar bracelet in its place.

“Hayley’s a friend.” That was Trent again, still with an unreadable expression, still hanging a step back from the others. “She runs the Cybercafe.”

Tommy had no idea what a cybercafé was, but he guessed it was some sort of themed place, like Ernie’s. A public place, at least, which was better than going to someone’s house where he would have a harder time making a break for it. But civilians would be a problem.

It was Conner who spoke again, giving Tommy an odd look. Like he expected Tommy to be someone else, and finding that Tommy wasn’t, he was—scared. That was the look on Conner’s face. “We’re not—I mean, we’re…” He fumbled with the words, looking to the others, but Kira and Ethan shrugged and Trent only returned the look.

“Maybe we should call…” Ethan started.

“Who?” Conner cut him off, tone sharp. He looked back at Tommy again, trying to force a smile onto his face, but it looked terribly fake. “Come on, let’s just get to Hayley’s. I could kill for one of her shakes right about now.”

Not knowing what else to do, Tommy followed the four of them to a Jeep. They all sat in silence for the car ride.

***

No one spoke during the drive. Conner tried to tell himself that he was too busy focusing on the road—the last thing he needed would be a lecture from Dr. O about wrecking his precious Jeep—but that only made him glance towards the teenager in the passenger seat.

Tommy. Not Dr. O. Not their teammate, mentor, and sometimes leader.

He half expected Ethan to be rattling off theories about whatever Zeltrax had done to Dr. O, but Kira was in between the two boys in the back, and seemed to be keeping them both in check.

The drive was too short; Conner parked the Jeep out back. The last thing they needed was to show up through the front door to find Cassidy and Devon inside. Cassidy would jump all over this “scoop” of a guy who looked far too much like their science teacher—albeit about fifteen years younger and with longer hair and no goatee. His glasses were missing too, which was a bit of a surprise, and whatever Zeltrax had done, Doc—Tommy’s clothes were now green. He still had his Dino gem around his wrist though, which was only some comfort to Conner. At least that meant Mesogog didn’t have it. But they were down a teammate, if Tommy couldn’t morph with it.

Trent used his key to let them through the back door into the storeroom, and then ducked out into the main area to bring Hayley back. She came in, a question on her lips, and then stopped abruptly.

“What happened?” she asked.

Conner shrugged. “No idea,” he said, letting himself finally slump against the wall. Hayley would clear this up, and Doc O would be back to normal, and Conner wouldn’t have to worry about what to do if Elsa or Zeltrax decided to attack any more than he usually had to worry.

“Look, uh, maybe if I could just use your pay phone,” Tommy started.

Ethan choked on a laugh; Kira elbowed him in the ribs. “What?” he demanded. “It’s funny. You know it’s funny.”

Tommy didn’t look like it was funny, and Hayley just looked kinda sad. “How old are you, Tommy?” she asked him.

“Fifteen,” Tommy said, sounding defensive, and Conner nearly swore. He was older than Doc O now, and how weird was that? Ethan and Kira must be thinking the same thing, because they were exchanging looks. Trent looked like he wanted to disappear.

Hayley looked like she was trying to find a way to ask her next question, looking Tommy up and down. “You’re the Green Ranger,” she said.

Tommy startled as much as Conner and the others did, but Tommy shifted into a defensive posture, ready for a fight, eyes darting between the group of them. “I knew it,” he snapped. “You’re working for Rita, aren’t you. Well you can just tell her—”

“We’re Rangers,” Conner said, realizing half a second later that he hadn’t meant to say that. Tommy’s eyes were now fixed on him, scared, hopeful, distrusting.

“And why should I believe anything you say?” he demanded. “Besides, it wouldn’t be the first time Rita’s used a Ranger.”

Trent’s expression shuttered even further than it already was. Conner didn’t really know what Tommy was talking about—Doc O had never really told them much about his time as a Ranger, nothing more than what they’d seen, months ago, in that video diary.

“None of us are evil, if that’s what you’re saying,” Kira said, crossing her arms. “We’re te—”

Conner shook his head, and Kira cut herself off. “Then you won’t have a problem with me calling my friends,” Tommy said, still sounding somewhere between defensive and triumphant at his reasoning.

Hayley’s frown deepened. She looked at Tommy, who was still looking expectant, and then she looked at Conner, and Conner felt his heart sink. Hayley wasn’t going to fix things, not this time. Her words confirmed that. “You’re going to have to tell him.”

“Tell me what?”

Conner just sighed and nodded.

***

This time it was Hayley’s idea to change venues. No one had answered Tommy’s question yet, and Tommy still wasn’t sure he trusted any of these kids, though his instincts were still screaming that they were safe, that they wouldn’t hurt him or turn him over to Rita or use him to get at Jason and the others.

It wasn’t much comfort when Kira, Ethan, and Trent decided to ride with Hayley, leaving Tommy alone in the Jeep with Conner. They were definitely heading out of town, which made him feel even more uncomfortable.

“Where are we going now?”

“Yo—uh…” Conner seemed to be having a lot of trouble explaining things. He huffed out a breath. “Headquarters. It’ll be easier to explain things there. I hope,” he added, under his breath.

“Who were you expecting?” Tommy asked.

Conner’s hands tightened on the wheel as he jerked just a bit, the car swerving before he got it back under control. He shot Tommy a sideways look. “What do you mean?”

“When you found me on the ground. You were expecting someone else. I could tell.”

Tommy wished Jason was here; Jase was much better at getting people to relax and open up. Or Billy, who would already have all the answers to what was going on and why these people seemed to know who he was.

“Not someone else,” Conner said, after several seconds of nothing but road noise. “You’re a Ranger, yeah? I mean, Hayley said you were the Green Ranger, but you…you remember being that, don’t you?”

Tommy considered lying. Maybe if they thought he hadn’t been a Ranger, they’d let him go. But Conner sounded so lost that he just couldn’t do it. “I remember.”

“Then you know sometimes weird things happen,” Conner continued, relief evident in his voice. “Hayley and Ethan will be able to figure out what happened better, once they’ve got the right equipment, but that’s kind of the basics, y’know?”

“Weird things happen?” Tommy repeated back. He couldn’t deny that was the truth. He’d seen plenty of weird things happen during his tenure as a Ranger, and the others had told him plenty of stories of things that had happened before he joined the team.

“Look, Ethan’s the egghead,” Conner said, sharp and defensive. “You want a better explanation than that, you’re gonna have to ask him. But something happened, and now you’re…”

“I’m what?” Tommy asked.

Conner blew out a long breath. “Look, you’re our science teacher. You’re supposed to be old, like, nearly thirty or something. I don’t know what happened, and I don’t know how to fix it. Hayley probably can, she can fix anything.”

“But if she can’t?” Tommy asked. He watched Conner’s shoulders slump for a moment, before he straightened them out again.

“Then I guess Ethan’s right and we don’t have that science test tomorrow after all,” Conner replied.

***

Kira and Ethan were arguing over something when Conner led Tommy down into his own basement. Tommy was looking around with wide eyes and no recognition, and didn’t seem to notice when Kira and Ethan abruptly stopped talking.

“Took you long enough to get here,” Ethan said.

Conner rolled his eyes. “Whatever, dude. Tell me you’ve got something.”

Ethan spun in his chair to face the bank of computer monitors. Hayley had been typing furiously since they’d come in, but that caused her to pause and look back at Tommy. “Kira, Ethan, and Trent told me what they saw. I’ve been cross-referencing with anything I can find, but the records aren’t all that great in some places.”

“I’ve been de-aged,” Tommy said, carefully and neutrally. “Conner said I was supposed to be their science teacher.”

Hayley gave Conner a look, but Conner shrugged. “You said I had to explain things to him.”

“Whose bright idea was it to let Conner do that, again?” Kira asked. She was leaning against a strut, trying to look relaxed, but Conner knew her and could see the tension in every line. Trent was nowhere to be seen; probably seeing what he could find about Mesagog’s latest plan or what Elsa or Zeltrax was up to at the moment, and not lurking in the shadows, invisible.

“Go ahead and tell him the rest, if you think you can do better,” Conner said, leaning against one of the data servers along the wall.

Kira looked like a deer in the headlights for just a moment, before she was glaring at him, arms crossed. Hayley interrupted her before she could say anything. “Why don’t you have a seat, Tommy?”

Tommy didn’t move. He still looked like he was ready for an attack. Sometimes Conner felt like their mentor never really trusted them, but this was something completely new and different. Tommy was _afraid_ , and Conner had never seen Doc O scared before.

“We were fighting one of Elsa’s Mutants. You got hit by something and demorphed, and when we were finally able to check on you, you’re what we found,” Conner said, frustration and worry finally getting the better of him. He didn’t add the part where Dr. O had been stuck in his morph for weeks now.

Tommy sat abruptly. His mouth opened and closed three times before he managed to find his voice. “Who’s Elsa?”

A picture of Elsa appeared on one of the monitors. She was smug, arms crossed with a lazy smile that belied just how vicious she could be. “One of Mesagog’s generals. They’re trying to change Earth’s climate and bring back the dinosaurs. Or something,” Kira explained.

“Trent—”

Conner shook his head sharply, cutting Ethan off. They didn’t need to get into that mess right now, not when they were having a hard enough time getting Tommy to trust them. “Trent’s following up on some leads,” Conner said.

“Wait. You said I demorphed.” Conner didn’t meet Tommy’s look. “But you all act like you didn’t know I’m—I was the Green Ranger.”

Silence. Everyone was looking at Conner, waiting for him to say something. It was one thing to be in the field, to have Kira and Ethan looking to him for direction. But Conner had always known Dr. O had been nearby, either physically or on the comms, to jump in with advice or to take over if Conner didn’t know what to do. But there was no one for Conner to turn to now.

Conner cleared his throat. “You’re not the Green Ranger any more. You’re the Black Dino Thunder Ranger.”


End file.
